Luke 7:36 One of the P’rushim invited Yeshua to eat with him, and he went into the home of the Parush and took his place at the table. 37 A woman who lived in that town, a sinner, who was aware that he was eating in the home of the Parush, brought an alabaster box of very expensive perfume, 38 stood behind Yeshua at his feet and wept until her tears began to wet his feet. Then she wiped his feet with her own hair, kissed his feet and poured the perfume on them.
39 When the Parush who had invited him saw what was going on, he said to himself, “If this man were really a prophet, he would have known who is touching him and what sort of woman she is, that she is a sinner.” 40 Yeshua answered, “Shim‘on, I have something to say to you.” “Say it, Rabbi,” he replied. 41 “A certain creditor had two debtors; the one owed ten times as much as the other. 42 When they were unable to pay him back, he canceled both their debts. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Shim‘on answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the larger debt.” “Your judgment is right,” Yeshua said to him.
Here we have two primary players: a person that does not believe they are a horrible sinner and one that knows for absolute certain they are.
It seems the more desperate you are, the more you can see your desperate state. When we plainly sin, we know it is bad and can honestly see ourselves for what we really are. It’s almost as if the sinner is more blessed than those that “have their life together”.
At least they can express true gratitude genuinely when confronted with the Messiah Himself.
But what about the “believer”?
What is that thing that convinces us that we are ok?
I’d argue it has to do with how well you’ve decided to provide for yourself. If you’ve worked hard to build your lifestyle you are probably convinced you did it all. If you’ve sacrificed for the church, then you have paid the price of service and that counts for quite a bit, right?
You haven’t really needed God all that much aside from a few blips on the radar. In those moments you likely pressed in and sought Him to help alleviate the pain. And you are grateful.
But seriously, what has He done for you lately?
It’s been a minute since He’s shown up and so we kind of forget how incredible He really is.
But is it that He hasn’t shown up? Or is it that you have not given Him a place to appear?
You live in a state of quiet despair all the while remaining uncomfortably content. You seem to have just enough to not really need anything but you are also handcuffed to your lifestyle -- and it likely drains you in more ways than you care to admit.
Then as things crumble slowly but steadily we realize more and more how much we need Him.
But our life is too full to give Him room to come in.
And here we stand…too broken to really live and not broken enough to really live.
If only something would give, you’d then be able to dedicate your life fully to the call He has placed upon you from the day you took your first breath.
But nothing can give -- because you won’t let it. Our debt to ourselves is far greater than the debt we have to God.
But please, please, please think deeply and carefully about this.
How much is your debt to God?
Have you ever considered this?
Suppose you had a life threatening disease and the cost of the cure was a million dollars. What would you do? You’d likely sell everything you owned and take on debt for the balance.
Most people would pay almost anything in order to live -- on this side of Eternity.
But how much would you pay to live forever?
What if the cost were a trillion dollars? There is nothing you could do to generate that sort of revenue. You would die.
But we have someone that took on that cost Himself and is offering it to you as a gift.
I think we all know this is true on a cerebral level and yet we’re quite lethargic in our gratitude.
“I’m kind of busy right now but I’ll try to get sensitive at church this week.”
“I need to pay my debt to the credit card company then I’ll really be able to help others.”
“I don’t think I can lay down my own life today because my boss needs the best I have to offer.”
How is it we let the debt of the world eclipse the debt of our sins?
Somehow our commitment to our lifestyle, boss, hobbies, iniquities outweigh mightily the commitment we should have to the One that saved us.
How can this possibly be the case for our lives today? Why can’t we seriously drop the cares of the world and dedicate ourselves wholly to our creditor?
Impossible, you say. But it is possible.
We do it for Visa.